That makes a lot of sense! I’ve sort of just felt it til now, as I suffer from anxiety and panic attacks myself, and I get the same uneasy feeling as when I can feel one sneaking on. Funny, I’ve always “seen” my attacks as more blindingly whitish, don’t know why.

Freaking out or fighting might end in arrest, expulsion, mandatory counseling, etc.
Right now who is there to help put her back together? Can’t be Ethan, that would make it worse. Dina is still learning interaction. Danny thinks he found Amazi-Girl.
Which leaves Mike, who isn’t warm and cuddly. He does have a significant part of Amber’s story though.
Interesting to see if and how she gets it all together.
Ruth? Also abusive background, perhaps good there.

The thing that is killing me is Amber and Ethan want so badly to be friends again, but Ethan is being a closeted egghead, and Amber has her plethora of issues. This panel kills me because it’s when they were just happy being friends and things were simple :[

Amber wanted to get over prom and summer before she would have wanted to be friends again. She never had a chance to get there before all this.
We also see (never read other Willis comics) why Ethan means so much to Amber, why prom night was extra painful, and why she took on the world for him.

Pfftt….I got my PSP this year…and the PS2 when the PS3 came out…and the PS1 when they stopped making games for it and finding the good games is near impossible that you had to download the game of the net and burn it on a disc.

The thing that really weirds me out about Amber and Blaine is that in this strip Blaine looks quite a bit like my father, while I looked rather like Amber at that age. The difference is that while my father has a short temper he has never been physically abusive and is otherwise nothing like Blaine and I have always had a very close relationship with him, while I… no, I was pretty much exactly like Amber personality-wise too, I just chose to vent by angrily ranting at textareas.

I see Blaine, and even before I can read anything, my reaction is just, “Hsssss.” Congratulations, I have been successfully conditioned.

In other things, Ethan and Amber are adorable when they are tiny. Well, tiny-er. I am going to guess them at about pre-teen and just-teens here? I am sure they are adorable at early-childhood levels of being tiny, too.

Oh, wait, looking back at the strip again, that is a gas station. We are totally going to see what happened at Sal’s robbery that Amber was present for, aren’t we? Oh, ack ack ack, suddenly the tension is increased by appr. one billion percent.

(This is why I usually read this comic during the day, when I am usually awake enough to make connections the first time through.)

Yah, Ambers a broken bird if ever there was one. Blaine and her mother (mostly Blaine) did a number on her. And then there was the fiasco with Ethan.

It’s going to sound cold, but from my experience, it’s best to leave people like that be to sort themselves out. Be kind to them, yes. But don’t get close to them and try to “fix them”, because that’s just asking to get hurt yourself. Keep your distance, be generally kind, and hope they can get through their own issues, preferably with the help of a solid therapist.

If it does turn out Sal is what (negatively) inspired Amber to be Amazi-gal (which seems likely), I know Amber’s gonna feel like Danny getting close to Sal is horrible, horrible irony.
But actually, it makes sense.
Maybe Amber wanted to be like Sal so she could stop people like Sal, so *of course* Sal, who is more obviously like the hero she inspired, would be mistaken for her.
Sad thing is Amber’s becoming like those she opposes, her dad *and* Sal. That’s gonna hurt, even if being like Sal isn’t nearly as bad. And it’s too bad this is setting them up to be enemies, because I feel like if the two of them talked, they’d be great friends. They both have explosive parent issues and live outside the law. Seriously, imagine if they teamed up?

For the first time, I think that I’m actually relieved to see Blaine. I came here expecting to have to see Amber have a complete meltdown after last night’s strip. But instead, Flashback-Blaine has given us a temporary delay on Amber’s imminent psychotic breakdown.

So I posted number five and refreshed and read a couple posts. Come back to read comments and I’m at 33, interesting. Jumpy feed.

I saw someone posted upstream they just may stay away for awhile and come back and see it all at once. And another answered, the feels would probably kill ya.

I feel badly for her, she runs smack into Sal and Danny being all happy together over his DS, and she flashes back to Ethan when he was ‘protecting’ her from the world in general. She wants her friend, and she has no one. Makes me cry.

Yeah, I expect to come back and find Amber sitting on the steps below Danny and Sal, sucking her thumb.

Flash back time! Go get her some twinkies bongo! OK so how many cald the long awaited fash back? Also if she suppose be 13 then why does she look like she 8? But I’m not questioning willises drawing skill just draw just saying

I liked having long hair. I had a pony tail through my later extended college years.
Of course, being Chinese, I had straight hair, which helped a lot. Coarse enough to be strong enough to not break.
Combing in the morning and after showering wasn’t fun, but other than that it was pretty easy to take care of. Used huge amounts of shampoo.
So opposite experience of Fuzzydaemon.

Also probably the easiest time I had getting sex. A woman once told me “everybody wants to fuck long hair”.

I agree that individually it is, but as a group things trend one way.
Traditionally, it is the single women who wear their hair long. They cut their hair or tie it in a bun when married even though it was just as in the way when single.
Every rock video babe has long hair, as do models. Most women in entertainment too, at least while establishing themselves. This is at a time when we have quality wigs and hair extensions.

Amber used to have long hair in Shortpacked, then got it cut, then let it grow again. Willis is having her be a “former-long-haired-gal” again here just so she can be like her alt-dimension self a little more.

I am so here for this flashback, though. After having seen it be alluded to for so long I am quite excited to find out what actually happened. I mean, I say excited. Terrified. But excited. EXCITIFIED.

I noticed this too, last night, but fell asleep before I could comment on it! Ethan and Amber really have *got* to patch it up — they’ve got too much history in their friendship to just toss it all out the window.

Error: There appears to be a problem with your graphics display card. Please restart the system if this is the first time that instead of seeing current events, you see reddish tinged flashbacks. If that does not work, the hardware or software may be damaged and may require a psychologist to repair.

Willis has already drawn the strip following the flashback. You knew that, but did you know part of it is already viewable in his deviant art? This is one of the upcoming panels following Amber’s mental breakdown.

I have a step-father much like Amber’s. I was sixteen when it first came to blows and spent 6 days in country lockup and a few years later ended up spending 11 months in a psych ward after I almost killed him when he pushed me a little too far. Thankfully, I don’t have any contact with either of my parents anymore.

While it’s incredibly difficult to do, sometimes cutting them out of your life entirely is the best option. Also, therapy. Amber needs therapy badly. I don’t know what kinds of options most universities have, but I do know my local one (UAF) has options for students who need therapy.

Most universities in the US have some variety of university medical coverage for staff and students that is much less than that normally available, which usually includes both psychological and psychiatric care. Schools that have dental programs, medical programs and clinical psychology programs often have a preferred pricing, or other incentives, for getting care through those programs.

This is her in the flashback – she’s wearing a different outfit, and the same as in the other flashback panels. Willis has made some weird artistic choices with how the panels are framed in these last couple strips.

I’m also about Animal’s age and the first computer I owned was a computer-watch (The UC-2000) back in 1986, it had an amazing 2Kb of storage memory which is enough to store slightly over 7 tweets worth of text.

PTSD like symptoms are very common in abused children. Comes with being hyper vigilant trying to avoid danger and failing. So, yes, therapy. It does not need to include a single traumatic event, but in the nature of both situations, it often does.

Also, Ethan is being a good and brave friend here. Most kids would stay miles away from Blaine. Naomi’s no prize, but Ethan could be riding the bus with the other kids and chose this.

I bet we will find out that Marcie was the mastermind or the person holding up the store and that Sal was there to voice Marcie’s demands.
If it turns out that Sal was something of an unwilling participant it could explain some of her distrust of the police.

Sal never robbed that convenience store. Amber’s father did. Sal tried to stop him, disarmed him, but then was blamed for the robbery as the police burst in, while father browbeat Amber into keeping quiet about it.

So Amber knows that her silence is the reason Sal got punished, and that’s why she was reacting the way she did upon seeing her again.

Damn. I just realized seeing a past bad guy in a diffused (albeit hurtful for reasons Sal can’t possibly understand or be held responsible for) setting means Amber will have to confront the fact bad guys are people too – people who make stupid decisions, but people nonetheless. Making them a convenient outlet for your anger is how bad cops are made, after all.

DS lite was launched in 2006. If they’re 19 now (I’m not actually sure how old they are, but let’s say 19), that would make them 12 in the flashback. Which, without checking if any of that’s true, seems about right to me. It is weird, though. In a couple years, I’m going to be surpassing in age characters that have been older than me since before I was born. o_O

What I appreciate most right now are the drawings on Willis’ tumblrs showing Sal and Amber as they appear in strips weeks from now. Neither appear to be scarred, to be missing an eye, or to have their jaws wired shut. No major bones appear broken, nor are there signs of bruising or swelling on either of their faces.